


The Devil Wears a Suit and Tie

by Sharking



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Andreil, Cowboy Andrew, Desert, F/F, F/M, Gay Panic, Gun Kink, Gun Violence, Gunslingers, M/M, Nicknames, Panic Attacks, Prostitutes, Saloons, Smoking, aaron and katelyn are in love, etc - Freeform, old west au, renison, southern slang tw
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-09
Updated: 2020-12-09
Packaged: 2021-03-10 07:26:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,707
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27966788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sharking/pseuds/Sharking
Summary: Neil road into town with the clothes on his back, the horse beneath him, and five thousand dollars in coin, looking for a place to spend the night.In Andrew’s town that sounded like a problem.And Neil was nothing if not a problem.
Relationships: Allison Reynolds/Renee Walker (All For The Game), Jeremy Knox/Jean Moreau, Katelyn/Aaron Minyard, Kevin Day/Andrew Minyard, Kevin Day/Neil Josten/Andrew Minyard, Matt Boyd/Danielle "Dan" Wilds, Neil Josten/Andrew Minyard, Nicky Hemmick/Erik Klose
Comments: 2
Kudos: 36





	The Devil Wears a Suit and Tie

**Author's Note:**

> Excessive use of reckon in the first three lines and it’s never used again
> 
> Old west terms: 
> 
> Reckon - bet  
> Afterclaps - aftereffects, proceeding events  
> Jackaroo - cowboy  
> Logging - falling behind  
> Lick- salt lick for horses  
> Saddlebum - someone who spends all their time on a horse  
> Get gaited - leave  
> Granger - farmer  
> Gump - fool  
> Gal-boy - tomboy  
> Lead poisoning - getting shot  
> Old Betsy - andrew’s gun  
> Old states - east coast  
> Old country - Britain  
> Eatin’ irons - knife and fork

"I reckon you're not from around here." The drawl seemed to slide from his mouth into the warm air. It landed on Neil like spit landed in the dust.

"I reckon," Neil spat, mocking the deep voiced man, "you've got ear's then."

"Well i reckon you've got eyes."

He jutted out a leg. Posture portraying a false sense of ease; his hand still rested by the gun on his hip. The man's skin blended with the blinding white of the sun. His mirror image stood behind him in the formal sort of wear that meant he was something other than a normal man. He stood infront of a missus. She was dressed like a prostitute of some sort. Neil didn't much care, what a man does is his to decide and the same goes for any lady. Wasn't much difference to him.

Neil had road into the small town of Palmetto on a horse that had yet to lead him astray. This town, this place might have been it's first and last misstep.

"What is it you're doing here?"

"I'm here for the inn. A man a town over told me there were plenty of open rooms."

"And what was wrong with the inn there?", He spoke without pause or emphasis. His voice was the horizon.

"Some shootout with afterclaps i didn't want to find myself involved with."

And with this a spark of excitement flashed in golden eyes. It was only for a second, the smallest of changes right below the brim of his hat. Once again these things done to seem casual were meant to lower the defenses of whoever was speaking to the short man. Anyone could misinterperet his even tone for dumbness. That was one mistake Neil was sure to avoid, "What," he spoke,"you running from the law red?"

"Well i certainly aint a Jackaroo if that's what you're implyin' good sir"

A man emerged from the Inn behind the crew who were looking out and out like a bunch of cowards. This man didn't appear to be much different at first, however the difference was clear in the way he scuttled up and mumbled an, “Andrew?”. The other's stayed behind. 

"You bringin trouble into town?", Andrew asked clearly aware of the nervous man a foot or so behind him but not quite acknowledging him. Perhaps the question was for his sake.

"Not if I can help it."

"Andrew, he's not displayin'. At least nothin Moryima from what i can see." And the man was clearly attempting to whisper. The wind was more than enough to carry the tune his way. Now that name, Moriyama, was not a new one to Neil. It was the dog biting at his heels. It was the dark of dusk. Always coming, relentless. And this man, the failed whisperer, with his hunched over shoulders and his severe sun burn was now all too familiar.

Well this was Kevin Day. Neil wouldn't let himself be caught logging so he schooled his expression to whatever nuetrality he could manage.

"You got some demon's you chasin' out of town kind sir? I may not be sweet and simple but I aint of the evil kind."

"Well," he paused, seemed to contemplate for a second, and with the slightest of smiles that held not an ounce of warmth, "We'll be the ones to decide that I suppose. Tie your steed by the lick and Allie here'll find you a room."

This wasn't approval. Certainly wasn't an act of trust or anything other than the premise of, "the devil you know". Neil could understand that, if nothing else.

-

This little town was in fact pretty little. There were more buildings than people, though the ratio was made smaller when Neil's boots stepped foot on the dry dirt.

It was a simple place with simple buildings and simple people. For the most part.

He hadn't met a woman who ran anything before. Allison was the first. By the threat of her gaze Neil knew she wouldn't cause him fatal harm herself, but could kill him in a different way, that's for certain. She ran the inn and had a tall fella servin at the bar.

He gave Neil a snarl that must've been for show. It wasn't impressive in the slightest. All bark no bite from the pup.

Andrew followed behind Neil and Allison. He was stuck between two places he'd rather not be stuck between. Two broncos, with warning flags waving. Everything about the two blondes was dangerous.

Neil thought Andrew's sort of danger might be a bit more pertinent to his survival, so his focus remained on the thunk thunk thunk of heavy boots and the schhh schhh schhh of the spurs attached.

Andrew must scare the devil out of most, and although Neil wasn't shaking in his boots he sure as shit stayed on his toes. Neil was hopin for a room with a window one could jump from if needed, but the stairs went up and up and up and the shoes continued to hit hard on every step behind him.

"My supplier went out East a month ago and has yet to return. The curtains are not to my standard but they'll do for you Saddle bum." Allison, or Allie, had blonde hair. Not the same as Andrew's, his was near white, hers was golden and bouncy and lookin' all the part like a drawing. The kind his mother would hate.

"I don't care much for curtains. A bed is all i need."

"Well it's all yours shorty, how long you stayin?"

"I'm-" But before Neil could finish his thought Andrew stepped around him and into the room, "That's what we'll be discussing Reynolds. Now get gaited why don't you."

"Fine, but this is a fair shake, if he don't pay i'll be coming to you."

Andrew flicked his hand without looking at her and she huffed and walked away. 

Now it was just him and Andrew. 

-

Out by the bar the members of the posse who had stood behind Andrew before now congregated to gossip. In the bar at that moment was a ragtag group like none you've seen before. There was Nicky, son of a granger who didn't quite seem to know what he was doing half the time. 

There was Katelyn and Aaron, a doctor and a girl of the line, though which one of them was more respectable? Well Katelyn never passed out lookin like a gump with his face in the dirt, drunk as a skunk and Aaron definitely had. Take that information however you please.

Renee was everything a gal-boy. She had sent many a fella to the promise land through means of lead poisoning. None that deserved to live in the first place but besides, she'd found god in the desert and has since repented. A fact Andrew may never forgive her for. 

Finally there was Kevin. A man no one cared to know much about. A man no one dared speak I’ll of. He was under Andrew’s strict protection and refused Aloe for his burns. He had spent his time not doing much more than mumblin and drinking himself down a hole. 

The thing that brought them all together? A tough lookin', all-black wearin, midget of a man. 

A man who had never lasted long in talk with strangers, Old Betsy had made an appearance on every occasion but this one. 

And they all wanted to know what the hell was going on.

-

"Where you really from city boy?"

Andrew was smart. He had stood halfway between window and door and left Neil cornered. He was broad, so incredibly broad it looked as though you'd taken the shoulders of a man and put em on a youngen. Well that wasn't quite accurate either. Neil couldn't get his mind right when he didn't have a means of escape. And right now the broad man, proportionally correct or not, was blocking the way.

"I'm from the Old States."

"No you 'aint. Kevin's from the Old States and you don't sound nothing like Kevin."

Neil just stared at him, tried not to clench his fists.

"You from Old Country, aren't you?"

"And what of it?"

"Well i got some people under my protection who wouldn't much like a Brit hanging around."

"I have no quarrel with you or your people. I just need a place-"

"A place to stay. I heard it all before red. What really went down in Trojen?"

"The news'll find it's way hear on it's own. By then I'll be gone."

And then there was a knife. Neil didn't know how he could be so stupid to have missed it. He'd been so focused on his iron that he didn't think Andrew would have another weapon of his own. Stupid mistake. 

"What is that?", The fear in Neil's voice wasn't entirely fibbed.

"It's my eatin' irons, what the hell does it look like shorty? You lookin to get gutted or this annoyance just come easy to you?"

"If you want me out of town how come you let me in at all?"

And Andrew didn't have an answer to that. He lowered the knife, kept it visible, kept it ready in his hands, but lowered it all the same. Neil exhaled hard.

"I don't got no gear, I have coin. That's it. Is there a general store here?"

"The hell it look like? We got fewer people than I got weapons on me right now."

And that made Neil sweat, he resisted the urge to check where in all hell Andrew might be keeping such weapons, he wondered if his fists counted.

"Well what do you expect me to do?"

"Go out to the desert to die."

"Fuck you."

"Go to sleep red, we'll talk in the mornin. It's too high to jump and the stairs creek. Looks like you'll be spending the night. Start telling me the truth and you won’t have a thing to worry about.”

Andrew closed the door behind him and a resounding click let Neil know he was well and truly locked in. This small town, this little town with it's little people and it's big Andrew, well it was fucking him over.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed! I’ll be updating every week or so


End file.
